BETHEL — The inside of this former financial institution is not what anyone would have banked on, with kids at computers behind the teller line, the vault door left open and bean bag chairs in the lobby.
A little more than a year after the only bank in town closed its doors, the building now helps to protect a different kind of asset. Since January, the former Southern Bank and Trust location has served as the new home of the Bethel Youth Activity Center. Weekdays after school, dozens of students walk through these doors, where they are greeted by people willing to invest in their education.
“That is a beautiful sight for me to see,” Garrie Moore, the center’s founder said, “kids who want to be there. They come running in, excited, ready to work and interact with us.
“They’re wonderful kids,” he said. “A lot of them are very bright. They just need that exposure beyond the classroom.”
The center, founded a little more than a year ago, has exhibited ingenuity when it comes to converting unconventional spaces into educational environments. Its first location, just across Main Street from the bank, was a closed liquor store.
Program Assistant Barbara Highsmith recalls that after its opening in November 2020, people sometimes came to the door asking if the ABC (Alcoholic Beverage Control) Store was back in business. But she let them know that although the doors had reopened, the ABCs being offered here were not alcoholic but academic.
A U.S. Air Force retiree, Highsmith began volunteering after Moore brought his Center for Science Technology and Leadership Development program to Bethel School in 2010.
“We haven’t had anything for the kids,” said the Bethel native who moved back to her hometown in 2004. “There was nothing for them to do. That’s what triggered him; he saw that. The Lord placed it on his heart to start something here.”
Before becoming founder and chief executive officer for the nonprofit after-school program, Moore spent more than three decades in higher education, including 22 years at Pitt Community College. He retired from East Carolina University as vice chancellor for student affairs in 2006, going back to work briefly as vice chancellor for student affairs at City University of New York before returning home to Greenville.
“I really thought I was retired when I came back home,” Moore said, laughing. “I guess the good Lord had other plans for me.”
Although Moore lives 10 miles outside of Bethel, the circumstances of children who live there hit home for him. He grew up in a house without a television or radio, with no plumbing or running water.
“If you asked me how in the world did I end up in Bethel, I don’t know,” Moore said. “I’ve always had this sense of going where the need is.
“I understand what it is to come out of nothing and have something,” he said. “I just want to do all I can to help these kids grow and prosper.”
When it first opened, the center served students attending Pitt County Schools online due to the coronavirus pandemic. Last school year, the remote learning center remained open throughout the day, providing internet access and academic support for students.
Following a summer camp program, the Bethel Youth Activity Center began serving students after school in August 2021. So far, about 80 from first grade through high school are registered to attend at no charge. On an average day, more than two dozen step off the school bus and into the lobby, where they are served a snack before getting help with homework, followed by recreation time.
A video gaming system, along with kid-sized foosball, air hockey and pool tables are new additions since the center moved to the former bank location.
If he had not started coming here, Bethel School sixth-grader Trevon Watson said he would be taking the bus home, where he would watch TV or play video games until his mom came home from work. He likes the PlayStation 5 and the basketball goal outside the center, although he knows he has to read before getting to enjoy either of them.
“Every day they have to read,” said office manager Pam Paige-Gorham, who was one of Moore’s colleagues at PCC before coming to work at the center. “If they don’t have homework, then they have to automatically choose a book.”
Kelsey Woods, an education major at East Carolina University, has organized titles in a unique spot — the former bank vault. “Welcome to our library,” reads a hand-lettered sign on the door, which is propped open so that students can enter.
A sophomore and Raleigh native, who is studying to become a middle school English and social studies teacher, Woods treasures the space. She had just a few shelves for books when the center was operated in the store across the street.
“I enjoy having this space and being able to give kids kind of ownership of it,” she said. “It’s really important for them to feel like that this is something that’s sacred and made for them. They think it’s so cool.”
When students find books that interest them, they can go read in one of the bank offices that have been turned into classrooms or in the lobby, where bean bag chairs have been placed alongside the former bank furniture (which Southern Bank donated to the center). The bank also donated laptops, which students use along with desktop computers placed along the former teller line.
Bethel seventh-grader Chasity Bennett never recalls coming inside the building when it was a bank, but she is here most every weekday now. So is third-grader Harper Williams, who started the after-school program across the street last May.
“My mom saw it and went inside. I asked if I could go to it because it looked fun,” Harper said.
“There are people here to help us with our homework. … I like how they take care of you.”
Each grading period, students bring in their report cards to show how they are performing in school. While the center does not require a certain grade point average for students to remain enrolled, Moore likes to see that they are making progress.
“We’re not holding you to a standard of making all As, but we are holding you to a standard of doing your very best,” Moore said. “As long as you are a part of this center, we’re going to make sure that you succeed.”
In a little more than a year’s time, the center is having even more success than Moore had imagined. Since its opening at the former ABC Store, the location has not only hosted students in its program, but others in the community, from Girl Scout troops to senior adults wanting to improve their computer literacy skills.
Now that the after-school program has moved into the former bank location, Moore plans to maintain the store across the street to serve adults with programs including GED testing and health assessments. Through a partnership with PCC, the center plans to host workforce development programming beginning as early as March.
“Not only is the Bethel Youth Activity Center there for the children, but it’s also there for the community,” Moore said. “I think what we’re doing is unique in terms of we are meeting the need of a community.
“I really believe in what we’re doing,” he said. “It is very hard work, I can tell you. But it’s necessary work. Especially for the Bethel community, it’s critically important.”
